Twilight's Infection
by Suspense Master
Summary: During the events of the Crystal Empire, Twilight Sparkle gazed into Sombra's Door of Fear and questioned her actions, intriguing King Sombra and Twilight's ability to use dark magic. Scared and not wanting to be alone, she pledges herself as King Sombra's apprentice. Will Equestria fall to darkness, or will light shine through?
1. Chapter 1

Twilight Sparkle faced the doorway when she reached the bottom of the stairs in the crystal palace. Spike stayed up (not touching anything) and kept an eye outside as she opened the door that was there, but it was persistent. It dodged her attempts at trying to get to it until she had to use the trick that Celestia taught her, making the door fly open. Inside she found herself back in Princess Celestia's palace.

What am I doing here, she thought to herself. Trying to piece together everything was touch for her. As her thoughts continued, she heard a voice all out to her. "What are you doing here, Twilight Sparkle?" Celestia said, busy with the scrolls, writing them each and rolling them up before moving on to the next one.

"I don't know, I was in the palace one minute—"

"And now you must go!" Princess Celestia said. "You have no right to be here after you failed your test Twilight Sparkle, and I don't take kindly to failure."

"But… but if I failed your test, what's going to happen?"

"Why does it matter? You won't be able to continue your studies anymore after what you did! After I trusted you with this test, you fail it and all of Equestria, even your friends, Shining Armor, and Cadance. Everypony now knows what you did… and I don't want a failure as a student, not anymore!"

Twilight felt her tears escape her eyes. Hearing from the alicorn that she was trusted as her faithful student for so long was enough to break the damn, but when she was told about how her friends and everypony else saw her as a failure everything collapsed around her.

"Twilight, if your done with your worthless flank being in my castle, then you are dismissed!"

"Princess, please, I'm sorry!" she cried out, "Just give me another chance and I won't let you down! I've looked up to you for a long time and you taught me so much! What am I going to do now! Where will I go?"

The alicorn just looked at her stoically before she ordered some of her guards into the throne room. "Take this worthless unicorn to the Everfree Forest. From now on, that will be her new home! She no longer exists to me!"

The white, armored unicorns grabbed hold of Twilight by means of their magic and escorted her (while she screamed apologies at the Princess) and set her inside a carriage before flying off. The last thing that Twilight saw before she left the castle was a stained glass window similar to the ones of her friends and her defeating Discord, Nightmare Moon, and the defeat of Queen Chrysalis—though this one was of King Sombra and her, with him on top and her below him in a defeated manner.

Back in reality, she was catatonic, eyes a shade of lime-green with her irises red. Everything that was shown to her made her heart break but her emotions go into a rage. Rage… that was something she felt. Rage and hatred for everything that she knew was a lie, everything that she had worked so hard for. Her thoughts went back to the time when she went crazy because of worrying about sending in her Friendship Report late to Princess Celestia; her friends just brushed her off.

Another memory came up: back in Canterlot when she tried to tell everypony that the Cadance that was with them in the wedding was a fake, but she was ignored by everypony. Everypony ignored her…

All her friends, her brother, the Princess, even her number one assistant who she took care of since he hatched from that damn egg! As she stayed in the same position, a voice came into her head, one that sounded familiar.

_Is that what you want, Twilight? To be known as a failure all your life?_

_Princess Celestia… why would she do it? I would have done what I could to show her I was able to pass. To be able to still be her student! She does hate me, doesn't she? She would abandon me and have someone else as her student would she?_

_What about when the wedding happened, after you saved her life?_

_She never apologized for me being right. That stupid stallion, my so-called "brother", never apologized either. All he cared about was making sure his precious gem of wife was pampered and given the right wedding. If he wasn't preoccupied with that wedding, he would have listened instead of telling me not to come to the wedding._

_And what of your friends, what do you feel about them?_

Eyes still the same green with red irises, her friends stood before her, all glaring down at her and belittling her for what she did, even taunting her say she wasn't a friend to them. Next was Shining Armor, who told her the things she didn't want to hear, even from her parents.

_Why did you have to ruin everything? _Shining Armor

_You big meanie-pants, everything's always your fault! _Pinkie Pie

One after another, each of them gave harsh words to Twilight, words that burned deep into her memory and stung at her heart until it was on the verge of breaking, even with Celestia's words to her (about not wanting her to be her student, and being turned into stone by her like Discord) made her defenses break; everypony that she loved—her family, friends, her brother, her foalsitter—all turned their backs on her.

As they all faded from her like ghosts, the word turned into a black void. Twilight Sparkle sat alone in the abyss, tears cascading down her face while the shadows leaked out from beyond the door towards the young filly. Sombra looked at her with astonishment. Astonishment because of her ability to handle dark magic so well and learn it so quickly from the Princess; he saw great potential in her…

It had to be done. Looking at the still-crying filly, a wisp of purple gently stroked her cheek while she just continued to weep, knowing that she was all alone in the world, everypony abandoning her and leaving her for dead. Not even so much as batting an eyelash. As her heart began to darken, her anger grew stronger and stronger. King Sombra took notice of this and caressed her mane, stroking it like she was a loving kitten. "Twilight Sparkle—" he began but she cut him off.

"I don't want this… I want to be alone! Why would they do that? Tell me! I would have tried harder, I would have gotten better!"

"Is that what you want? To get better at magic, even more than you already know?"

"I do. I don't want to be alone anymore. Back at the wedding in Canterlot none of them showed concern for me or where I was! That tells me that they never cared for me to begin with. All the things I went through them—the Gala tickets, the wedding, the teasing comments like "egghead"—it was because I was the laughing stock and I was just being used to get what they wanted!"

"How would Celestia feel about you using dark magic? Would she allow you to continue?"

Twilight Sparkle sniffled a little and was silent. She could see her mentor berating her and scolding her, even going as far to turn her into stone like what happened with Discord! The rage in her heart grew stronger and stronger; Sombra could see it and continued, hoping that her defenses would break. "If they were to know about you using the same magic your mentor uses, would they still be your friends and family? Would they have still accepted you for what you are?"

Her eyes still the same color; she sniffled again and ground her teeth together. "No… they would hate me just like Princess would. They would betray me again just as they had before in the past."

"But I wouldn't, Twilight Sparkle," he said, "If you stayed with me, I would never betray you. I would make sure you're never alone."

She looked up to him as a creepy smile slowly formed on her face. "You would?"

"Yes," he nodded, "and you're ability to use magic like mine fascinates me so. So much so that if you're willing to learn me about I can teach you. Even more than Princess Celestia would."

Twilight's thoughts returned back to the memory of when back at the wedding. She tried to get everypony to listen but they wouldn't. In a last attempt for salvation, she turned to Princess Celestia…

**You have a lot to think about…**

Those words stung her heart hard. If she returned back to Canterlot with failure in her hooves, Princess Celestia would demote her as her star pupil, but not King Sombra… no. He would always be there for her and teach her dark magic that would make her stronger than she already was; stronger than when she defeated that Ursa Minor, and sending Trixie away.

Trixie… That would be the pony Celestia would chose as her replacement for the failure, and of course, she would be more than happy to learn from the most prestigious alicorn in Equestria… just so she could boast about it (like she's done in the past) and get Spike taken from her by the blue unicorn. Looking up at Sombra, whose eyes glowered with dark energy, he stayed silent waiting for Twilight's respond. In her silence, her heart grew dark and darker. The green color of her eyes got stronger, wisps of purple mist formed at the corners of her eyes as she looked up at her new mentor and bowed at her hooves as if he were Celestia.

"Twilight Sparkle," King Sombra began, "if you were to be taught by me, I could teach you so much more, more than what you already know. Even an Ursa Major, or even Discord would look at you with fear. Is that what you want?"

Her eyes glowed with the energy of dark magic, he could feel it. Yes, he thought to him, let go Twilight, let go. More and more the thoughts of abandonment from her friends and family plagued Twilight as her heart was covered in tendrils of darkness. King Sombra chuckled more to himself as Twlight began to break.

"You wouldn't abandon me like they would, would you?" she asked.

"I would never turn my back on you, Twilight. If you stay with me, all you have to do is cast them away from your life."

Her horn illuminated a red hue. Twilight could feel the shadows swallowing everything… and she could feel the strength from them. The power was incredible! Such a thing like this, it would be exhilarating to be able to use this power to take down her enemies. They would be like insects to her! One last thought was thought back to everypony she knew, and in an instant they formed cracks on their body before breaking into pieces like from a fragile mirror, falling into shards and leaving the lavender unicorn alone in the dark void.

Then she chuckled…

She laughed, the laugh getting louder and more psychotic; the purple mist from the dark energy of the magic stronger and stronger. "They never cared about me. I don't need them anymore, not anypony." She turned to King Sombra and knelt before in a way that was to be expected. "Please, King Sombra, teach me everything I need to know."

"In time, my apprentice… in time you will."

Back in reality, she still stood by the door a voice called out to her. She looked back up with her green eyes and looked up to where the baby dragon was, a scowl appearing on her face.

"If that dragon gets in my way, I'm feeding him to a real one, see how he likes it. But maybe later I'll invite him to dinner; right now I need to find something that my master wants. And I need to find before those other idiots do."

Eyes still the same she began to trek back up the stairs to find what she needed. Then, she would be on her on.

**Note: Well, there's the first chapter or prologue, whichever you want to call it, for this story. I haven't decided yet if I want to continue this story or not. This is just something an artist on the DA drew two pictures of and wanted people to make a fanfic based on it. If he ever gets to see and read this, I hope I do him (and you and others) proud of making this story. But my experience with MLP, even though I'm a brony too, is limited and getting everything to sound right to other bronies and pegasisters is important to me, so criticism is highly appreciated! **


	2. Chapter 2

Twilight Sparkle trotted up the stairs, her eyes normal (but still had the same look of hate) as she reached the top of the stairs. "Twilight is everything alright. I got worried about you," Spike said, his arms still covered so he wouldn't touch anything.

"Fine, Spike. Just stop bugging me and let me do what I need," she said.

For a moment, a look of hurt crossed over his face but was quickly taken off as he dismissed it as something she had gotten over. Twilight looked outside into the city, seeing the turquoise barrier that was protecting the city from King Sombra; it flashed for a moment and Twilight knew that it was fading away. A perfect opportunity, she thought to herself, seeing her friends and the other Crystal Ponies all gathered around the fake Crystal Heart. She had to glare at them. They didn't care about her; nopony did, so why should she have to save this wretched empire anyway?

"Look at them…" she said bitterly. "They're all so easy."

Standing over the balcony, she had a vision of herself being the one in the place King Sombra stood at watching over his empire with a sadistic glee as the row of crystal ponies moves slowly like a flowing river through a town. She herself was different and in a way just like King Sombra, almost. Her eyes took on the green hue with the mist-like purple seeping out only for a minute.

"Uh, Twilight?" the baby dragon called to her.

"What?" she snapped, startling him and making him fall on his bottom.

"Shouldn't we be looking for the Crystal Heart for the Empire? Princess Celestia wants you to pass your test, just like everypony else and I want you to too."

At the mention of that, Spike saw her eyes take on a cold appearance that petrified him with fear. The only time he had seen that look in her eyes was when she was disappointed in him for trying to blame Owlowiscious for something that was his fault so he wouldn't be replaced; but this was different—her eyes were even colder than the ones she gave him, almost like she wanted to hurt him.

He trembled at the thought of his owner who hatched him from that egg wanting to induce pain on him. He shook the thought from his head. Twilight wasn't like that… she never was.

"What does it matter?" she said, her eyes still the same. "She would just toss me aside and pick someone else like…" her voice changed to sarcasm, "'The Great and Powerful Trixie'". Ooh, I know that little braggart would just _love_ that, so she could show off the wonderful things she would learn and Celestia wouldn't say anything about her showing off!"

"Twilight, you know the Princess wouldn't do that. You've been her student for years and I've always been you assistant. She would never replace you."

"Don't give me that crap, Spike; you would probably leave me just like you did back at the rehearsal. Wouldn't you?" she yelled.

A look of hurt came across his face, "Twilight I wouldn't do that. What's got into you, why are you acting like this?"

"Because I know it to be true, you would leave me alone and then you would swear yourself to be that showoff's assistant and love it! And then if she didn't want you, where would a bucking crybaby like you go? Ooh, wait, I know… your prissy little unicorn's place! I bet you'd love to be pampered by her and always have someone to love you and kiss your boo-boo, wouldn't you?"

"Twilight, stop it! Are you listening to yourself?" Spike had never seen his mother-figure like this and was baffled as to why she was acting like this. Sure, he had seen her act like this on occasion but she spoke with a cold tone and said about being replaced by her mentor that she had known since she was a little filly. Looking at her, he saw how her eyes had a green hue to them and purple mist-like energy flowing from them. "Twilight…" he spoke, too afraid to say anything, and couldn't when a magical blast (one that was green and purple) shot out from her horn and blasted him against the wall.

Spike lay on the floor, his body twitching with a light smoke billowing off his small body. Twilight looked at him for a moment before her mouth twisted into a cold smile, and then she looked up at her horn…

It was magnificent.

_Already I used dark magic a second time and I feel the need to learn more. King Sombra promised me to take me as his own and teach something that that wretched old alicorn-excuse couldn't! _Twilight thought then looked down at the hurt dragon.

"There! Now you have plenty of boo-boos for your Rarity to kiss!" she laughed at his misfortune before his hazy, tear-stained eyes saw her leave him behind without as much as to look back. Tears welled up before flowing down his hurt and burnt cheeks… and began to cry. Twilight could care less about that worthless pile of filth and walked away from him and ready to leave this Empire. If she wanted to get better at the thing she craved, being here wasn't going to help her achieve what she wanted so she had to leave. As she left, the gaping hole in the throne room shrank until it was covered.

She knew that nothing matter and nopony cared for her, so why should the Empire be saved? So that her master could be banished again while she just watched? He was supposed to teach her; he was her mentor now! He was going to help her become the most powerful unicorn in Equestria, even more so than Celestia and her sister Luna. As Twilight moved through the city, she ignored the calls of her friends and her brother and Cadance and just kept going. Now they suddenly gave a buck about her?

Make up your stupid mind, idiots, she thought to herself as the distance between the Empire got farther and farther away, her lungs burning with stress from the oxygen they were taking in out, her legs also feeling the same. Twilight was by no means an athlete like Rainbow Dash and Applejack, but she knew she would have to become one (just for a short time) in order for the others to not know where she was going.

The snow covers around her entire body as she felt the cold feeling rush through her veins. She had to find someplace to get warm or end up dying here… No! She wasn't going to, her master needed her and she wasn't going to disappoint him. As she continued on, her thoughts turned back to what she had told her "beloved assistant" earlier how she knew Celestia would make Trixie as her new apprentice.

"That suits me just fine!" she said to herself, finding the station where they were dropped off at and slowly started to board on the train. The conductor looked over at her, knowing she wasn't supposed to be on board.

"Miss, I'm sorry but aren't you supposed to be in the Crystal Empire right now?"

"I don't care about that place, take me back to Ponyville."

"But miss, what about your friends and…"

A blast of magic cut him off, sending a jolt coursing through his body as he crumbled to the floor of the train. Twilight look at him with the same cold eyes she gave Spike—this puny maggot was going to do what he was told! "Get up!" she yelled at the pony conductor, sending a blast of dark magic at him. He cried in pain but managed, with staggering legs, to get back up and face her.

"You going to take me back home to Ponyville, is that clear?" she said coldly.

He only nodded and began to move to the control room while she just sat on one of the seats, the dark look never leaving her face as she looked out at the white scenery. For a moment she wanted to tell the conductor to stop, and get back Spike from the castle, but she decided that the little thing probably told on her by now.

As the train got further and further from the station, Twilight thought it best to get some sleep for a while. Huddling up against the seat in a comfortable position, she closed her eyes and drifted off to sleep until the stop.

"She did _what_?" Shining Armor said to Spike, whose injuries still hurt from the magic blast she gave him. When Twilight's friend's saw her leave the Empire without looking at them and ignoring their calls, Rainbow Dash decided to ask what was going on—he heard from Applejack that she went up into the castle and told the others about it, including Cadance and Shining Armor. Each of them went inside and looked throughout the castle… they stood in shock by what they saw in the throne room.

Spikes charred body lay on the ground, his crying and shuddering had stopped moments ago while he just hugged his self in comfort all while mumbling things that they couldn't understand; it sounded like he was saying something like, "Don't leave me" or "I'll be a good boy". It broke Rarity's heart so much that her little Spikey-wikey was hurt and she wanted to know who did so she could rip them to pieces. Nopony _ever_ touches a scale on her Spikey-wikey's cute little head!

However, when he came around and told them… their hearts all stopped at the mention of the name: Twilight. Why would she go and hurt the one thing she cared about and leave him for dead?

"Why in tarnation would she go and do something like that to Spike?"

"Whatever the reason that pony's going to answer to my hoof is she doesn't give me an answer why she would hurt my Spikey-wikey!" Rarity said, the others just looked at her, not really taking Rarity to be the violent type—Rainbow Dash more since the Great Dragon Migration—and could stand up to someone magical like Twilight.

"Um, Rarity, aren't you taking this a bit personal," Fluttershy said. "I'm sure Twilight was just under some stress about saving the Empire."

"That ain't no excuse to turn her favorite assistant into a fried turkey!" said Applejack.

"I agree with AJ!" Rainbow Dash said. "When I find Twilight, she's not going to be the only one to answer to my hoof. I swear the griffons will think she's one of their own!"

"But why would she do something to this to Spike? She's never been like this," Cadance said as she was busy tending to Spike with her healing magic, and soothing him with comforting words while he just stayed the same—crying and muttering to himself.

"But where could she have gone?" said Fluttershy.

"Last time I saw her," Pinkie Pie said, still dressed like a jester, "was her heading out of the Crystal Empire, I think."

All of them exchanged knowing looks before Rainbow Dash spoke. "What are the chances she's heading back to Ponyville."

"You might be right, Dash, but what would she be headin' back home fer?"

"Maybe she wants to be ready for a party when we save the empire," Pinkie Pie said.

The Elements of Harmony facehoofed at the party-maker's mentality, then Rainbow Dash looked at her. "Pinkie Pie, this is serious! Twilight nearly burned Spike, the dragon she cared about _so_ much, almost to a crisp, and all you're worried about is a party? Can't you stop acting like a foal for once and act your age!"

"Rainbow, that's pushin' it a little, don' ya think?" Applejack scolded her lightly.

"I don't care if I hurt her feelings, she needs to act up. We have something big on our hands, and we need to find Twilight and ask her why she did this."

"But where did she go?" Fluttershy said.

"If my guess is right she probably went back to Ponyville."

"What about the Empire? Celestia's expecting her to pass her test," Rarity said, and look in horror as the barrier that protected it began to diminish and fade. In place of it, some of the crystals in the Empire began to shroud into the color black like before. Shining Armor saw this happened and could watch as King Sombra soon appeared before them. "Soon, it's all going to be mine again," he spoke in a cold voice while the glow of the Crystal Ponies coats reverted back to their faded look.

"Sombra, this isn't your empire anymore," Shining Armor said to him. The dark unicorn laughed at this.

"It will _always be my empire_! Soon it will have somepony to take my place when I am gone, and they will become more powerful than me. They will do me proud!"

The mention of somepony "taking his place" when he was gone got their attention. All of these questions were not coming into their head and they wanted answers… and the only pony who was liable to give them was Twilight. Shining Armor looked back at the Empire; he couldn't leave it unprotected, even for a second. He looked back at them and said, "I can't believe I'm saying this, but you need to find Twilight and bring her back here."

"What about the Crystal Heart?" Applejack asked.

"I'll keep looking and if I don't succeed… Celestia help us all."

Knowing that this was something majorly disastrous, they all agreed and left the Empire and made their way back to the station they came from—the train already there and they quickly boarded it. Rarity asked the conductor if they could be taken back to Ponyville, who was willing to help as long as they didn't hurt him.

As the train got moving, each of them had thoughts about why the conductor would think they would hurt him. "You don't suppose Twilight had something to do with this, do you?" Rarity asked while they were pondering on it. They looked over at Spike, who was sound asleep, and wondered why Twilight was turning into like Trixie. Thinking of the blue unicorn gave a bad taste in their mouth. Though, Twilight was nothing like Trixie—one, she wasn't a braggart and two, she was stronger than her in magic.

* * *

In Ponyville, in her tree library home, Twilight sat in the candlelit darkness with a mountain of books stacked high like the Celestia's castle, in front of her. Her mind buried into the books, taking in the things she wanted—_needed_—to learn. As she studied, a voice called to her from nowhere: _Twilight, my apprentice._

_My master,_ she greeted to him.

_Cadance's magic barrier around the Empire is fading away, thanks to a piece of my horn. Now once it's gone, you will be able to come back home, and watch as _your_ empire grows stronger and stronger as time goes on._

_But what about Spike? What I did to him back in the throne room, I shouldn't have… he's always been loyal to me and I never wanted him to leave my side. Please, master, I don't want to be separated from my number on assistant!_

She could hear him give a slight chuckle before his voice had an apologetic tone to it: _You shouldn't have to worry about your pet dragon, Twilight. When the time comes, you can decide if he's willing to stay by your side like he always has, or be with those so-called friends of yours. My dear, right now you should be more concerned with making yourself stronger… the time for Spike will come later._

_Yes, master._

King Sombra's voice faded away while Twilight looked at the picture of her and her friend's they had taken together that one day. With hatred in her eyes, she blasted the picture into a burning mess before throwing it into the fireplace. As she watched it burn, her coat was slowly starting to fade from its light purple to a dark purple.

"I don't need friends," she said to herself and went back to her studies. Unknown to her, an owl watched her from a closed window and flew off.

* * *

_**Well, there's another chapter for you, everypony. But I feel like this story isn't turning out the way I want to… Like I said I have no experience with MLP (even though I watched all the seasons, and read some fanfics) but when it comes to making my own, I'm lost on it. Do you like the story? If you do, give me some tips or something I can use to make this story better, and if you think the whole thing needs a rewrite—let me know and I'll be happy to do it for you.**_


	3. Chapter 3

_[Author's Note:__Everyone, thank you for your reviews and please keep them coming. I'm glad this story appeals to all of you. Some people, though, gave King Sombra too much hate, but I think he's a great villain (he's, of course, to be modeled after Sauron from Lord of the Rings). And also, the Evil Twilight thing is great fan fiction material I think it would also fit Twilight as well._

_That's what I love about being an otaku because you can get inspiration from anime. Also, another reference will be in the story that a lot of you will recognize I'm sure. So, again, thank you for the reviews and enjoy more of this great story to come.]_

* * *

"Fear is the path to the dark side. Fear leads to anger, anger leads to hate, hate leads to suffering…" –Master Yoda (Star Wars)

* * *

A pink train rode through the snow of Northern Equestria, back to Ponyville; all of its occupants not saying anything, a heavy blanket of silence filled the car. Spike lay on Fluttershy's lap, his crying stopped as he was now asleep while she stroked him lovingly. Each one of Twilight's family and friends could only watch the little guy as he slept, wondering how what he was dreaming about. For Rainbow Dash and Shining Armor they were going to give Twilight a good strict lecture about what she had done, Shining Armor especially. Applejack looked over at the prismatic mare and said, "Hey RD, are you feeling okay?"

Caught off guard by the question, and broken out of her daze, she huffed at her. "No, AJ, I'm not _okay_! I'm ticked off at what that egghead did to the one dragon she practically treats like a son. Just look at him, for Celestia's sake!"

"I know what she did to him RD, and I'm just as ticked off at her as you are. But I'm keeping my anger in check for when we get back home so I can chew that 'egghead' up like an apple and then spit her back out."

"You're not the only one, darling. I want to have a go at her as I said before," Rarity said.

"Maybe she was just under a lot of stress from this," Applejack said. "I mean protecting a whole empire is tough."

* * *

Twilight looked through each of her books, her eyes were now normal but her coat was still the same faded dark purple that it had become moments ago. Inside her, she was still graving to taste the magic; to her it was like what Pinkie Pie's sweets were to her. As she studied, her Master spoke to her, guiding her on the ways of dark magic. As he taught her, the things became clear to her. She looked over at her Friendship Reports, and then laughed coldly before she threw them into the fire with the black charred remains of the photos of her friends. "The magic of friendship," she laughed. "What a joke. Magic doesn't have anything to do with friendship. Celestia will never understand."

For at least two more hours, she studied until exhaustion set into her. She blew out the candle and left the spare ones where they were to be used again for another night. As she got over to the stairs that led to her bed she looked over and saw the stand that that stupid pet owl of hers would stand perched on. An idea popped into her head. She smiled. "Maybe I'll try that tomorrow night or next week."

The idea still in her head, she slept. But later on at night she was plagued by nightmares from her family and friends—almost like the one she had of Zecora when she didn't know who she was at the time—and they got worse and worse. In the dark void she sat, each one of her friends towered over, their eyes covered by shadow. "You ruined everything, Twilight," Applejack said. "Your brother trusted you with making a good wedding and you got jealous because you just didn't want him to be happy!"

"That's right!" Fluttershy said, who was no longer docile and shy and whose eyes were also shrouded. "You were jealous of him and Cadence wanting to be together!"

Twilight began to feel her eyes heat up, tears welling up and sliding down her cheeks. Each of her friends continued to berate and laugh at her, taunting her and saying she was a worthless pile of manure. In her heart, she felt the words pierce through it like spears through a piece of tanned animal hide. "Stop it!" she cried, covering her head with her hooves.

"Look at the little baby!" Rainbow Dash taunted with a nasty snicker, "What's the little baby gonna do? Go and cry to your mommy and daddy?"

"Maybe she should do that!" Rarity said. "The little foal should just let her parents smother her with kisses and give her a bottle."

"Maybe she needs a diaper change!" Pinkie Pie laughed.

Each one of them continued to taunt her until she turned away from them and started to run. She didn't know where and it didn't matter—she just wanted to get away from all of them and the hurtful things they said. Why were they being like this? They were her friends…weren't they? They should be counseling her and telling her everything was okay, not putting her down and saying nasty things about her. Maybe her parents and brother could help, maybe even her foalsitter Cadence. She and her had a strong bond since she was a little filly; surely she would listen to her as would her BBBFF. Continuing to run through the nothing-void, she saw her family and brother and foalsitter. Finally, she thought to herself, I know they won't hurt me.

She went up to them and said, "Mom, Dad…what's happening to my friends?"

Her mother looked at her. "You should know with how smart you are. I can't believe I gave birth to such an idiot filly! I should have never birthed you!"

"I second that!" her father said. "This family shouldn't have a failure like you in it!"

"Looking at you disgusts me. Mom was right, you should have never been born and my life—_our life_—would have been better off without you," Shining Armor said.

"Shiny, please…!" Twilight cried and went up to him to try and get some comfort, only for the stallion to buck her hard in the face. She hit the floor, coughing a little with the taste of blood filling her mouth.

"Touch me again and I'm going to knock your teeth out next!"

The lavender unicorn turned to her foalsitter for salvation. "Cadence, please… Think of all the good times we had together, our secret dance."

Cadence scowled at her. "Shining's right about you…everypony would be better off without you. I can't believe I agree with your parents to look after you! I should have just locked you in your room when I _did _agree to foal-sit you."

After the pink alicorn was finished saying what needed to be said, the others soon formed around her and started saying hurtful things to her while she just covered her head, tears cascading down her face mumbling "Stop it! STOP IT!" but she knew they wouldn't…

All was quiet.

Twilight looked up and saw King Sombra looking down at her with a look of sorrow as she looked up at him with her tear-streaked face. He smiled. The smile was gentle and loving. He knelt down beside her and brought her close while she hugged on to him and he just stroked her lovingly. "Shh…it's all right, my dear. I'll always be here for you. As I said before I'll never betray you like they did."

Twilight looked up at him, her crying stopped. "Thank you Master."

In reality she got up from her bed, having awoken from her dream. Everything that she had just experienced was true…and the memories of the past. The wedding was the one she was most hurt by because none of them apologized to her, so why did she choose to forgive them in the first place? All the questions entered her head and she found it difficult to get back to sleep. She got out of bed and went out the door and downstairs to her books, hoping that reading one of them would get her mind off of those nightmares. Looking through her large collection of books, she found one and picked it out and went over to the fireplace and sat on the chair. Normally she wanted to start the fire place but didn't, so she just used one of the candles for light since starting a fire would take too much of her magic since she was too exhausted from her practice.

As she read through the book, something caught her attention; her ears flickered as she heard a sound.

She looked over and saw him. "Spike…"

"I never did nothing wrong Twilight, I just was worried. Why?"

"I know what I did and I regret it deeply now. I shouldn't have done it! All the stress of that test and the Princess scolding me made me do it."

Spike shook his head. "No, you wanted to do it! You hated me since I was born!"

"I never did Spike! Believe me! You were the most precious thing to me, even more than my books."

"But if the library was on fire and I was trapped inside, what would be more important to you…me or your books?'

"Spike, you know that no matter how many books I have, nothing will change how I feel about you. I promise."

"Why are you lying to me again?"

"I'm not!" she cried. She went up to him and picked him up and hugged him to show him that she cared for him. He was frozen, not knowing what he should believe after what happened. "Spike, I love my books, you're right about that. But I love you even more so than them. Nothing will change how I feel about you, and if we can start over, then things will be different from now on."

He didn't say anything, until she pulled him away from her to show that it was not real—the whole thing had been a hallucination. What she was holding was a wooden Trojan horse head. Her eyes began to burn, tears forming before they went down her cheeks. Even though what she knew wasn't real she meant what she said and wanted to make things right again with her beloved assistant.

She threw the piece of carved wood angrily away and began to get back to reading her book, though her mind was still formulating ways on how to make amends with the small lizard. She knew he was the only one she was going to forgive and not the others. Not that sugar-addict, childish foal Pinkie Pie or that prissy little unicorn, or that lazy braggart Rainbow Dash, or even her former mentor Princess Celestia.

Going back to her book, she read for a while longer. The voice that spoken to her earlier still haunted her while she tried to block it out. She was sorry, she was sorry, she was sorry…

* * *

The pink train continued on as the ponies, excluding the conductor, was all sleeping in their sleeper cars. Each of them tried to get some rest but it was difficult; they knew that this whole thing with Twilight was going to keep from getting sleep. Because of that Spike had to sleep with Fluttershy and the yellow Pegasus didn't have any problems with him. Back at the Crystal Empire, Shining Armor and Cadence sat in the throne room of the castle, around the table, and talked about what they were going to do about restoring the Crystal Empire. Cadence talked about wanting to leave the Empire and go to Canterlot and speak with Celestia—he didn't like the idea of leaving and wanted to keep searching for the Crystal Heart. "Shining, please…Twilight couldn't find the Crystal Heart, and if you can't, then I think the only option we have left is talking to my aunt Celestia."

"I have to try Cadence," he said, pacing through the room. "I'm not going to have him take back the Crystal Empire."

"And if he does? What then?"

Shining Armor didn't say anything. He just looked at her with a blank expression before looking toward the floor. "Then I don't know. Maybe I'll just watch as everything goes to Tartarus."

"Look, both of us have been through a lot of rest stress since he showed his ugly face. Maybe we just need some sleep," Cadance said.

"How can I sleep when he's right outside the spell?"

"Honey, please…let it go. More so, I'm worried about how he said somepony will take his place when he's gone. What did he mean by that?"

"That's something I'm still trying to figure out on top of finding the Crystal Heart."

"Do you think it had something to do with Twilight hurting Spike? Or did you do something to her that made her upset?"

At the mention of that, Shining Armor felt his heart begin to race. Memories of back at Canterlot were coming back: how he told her off, disowned her, and not even apologizing about it when he found out the truth. Hell, he didn't even know the real reason for his migraines was because that…_insect…_was sucking his love away, not because of having to keep that force field up. When the married couple got into the carriage, he was sweating because when he looked at Twilight in the eye he didn't know how to say that he was sorry for everything; and Cadence saw this in the carriage. She asked him what was wrong and he told her some lie that she (by a miracle) believed it. Now that they were here in the Crystal Empire and she brought up the painful subject, his heart started to beat faster like it was about to burst from his ribcage to the floor.

"Shining Armor," she said using his real name, which to him meant something serious, and he looked at her; her face was stern and wanting to know. "What happened between you and Twilight?" she asked in a low voice.

He sighed. _I know she's not going to have mercy on me, and I don't expect her to. _He continued to stare as she raised a brow at him in confusion. "Okay, this happened before you, the real you, was found and showed up at the wedding."

"I'm all ears."

And so Shining Armor told her the story about how his little sister accused her of being evil and putting a spell on him because he saw his eyes go into circles. Cadence listened and was horrified by what had happened while she was trapped inside those mines. Her love, captain of the Canterlot Royal Guard, completely destroyed his own sister because he thought she was jealous of him getting married to her—her fake self.

After a good few minutes, Cadence was a statue of shock and didn't know how to respond. Her brain had temporarily shut down. "Cadence, are you okay?" he asked her, hoping she wasn't too upset about it, but with what he had told her she probably was and he couldn't blame her. Looking at her eyes, they were filled with anger so intense that it was like Celestia's magic being shot from them and incinerating his heart. "Cady…"

"Y-you're disgusting!" she yelled at him, and he said nothing. He just stood there while she lashed out at him verbally. "She was your own bucking sister and you decided to break the poor filly's heart and didn't even do anything about it."

"I know, and I should have told you sooner."

"Then why didn't you?"

"I was afraid you would be upset with me a little."

"_A little_?" she yelled. "Shny, I'm like a volcano right now after what you told me! If you think a simple 'I'm sorry' is going to change all of this, it isn't!" She huffed at him before saying, "I can't even look at you right now. Get your disgusting flank out of my sight!"

It shattered. His eyes started to match the ones Cadence was having—tears. Head down he started to head for the door leading out of the bedroom and didn't bother to look back as he heard it forcefully shut. Alone in the throne room, he curled up into a fetal position on the floor and knew that it was going to bed his bed for who knew how long until she finally cooled down. Though, another thought came into his head: what if she never forgave him for what he did?

It's easy to know she won't, he thought and continued to cry silently. He continued to weep until exhaustion set in and he fell asleep where he was. He missed the comfort of the bedroom.


End file.
